Gators are now 3-7 in last 10 games decided by five points or fewer

GAINESVILLE – Late-game meltdowns cost the Florida Gators a spot in the Final Four two seasons running.

While the ingredients are there for another deep postseason run by coach Billy Donovan's team, so remain the looming questions about its ability to finish off games.

Following Saturday's 65-64 collapse at Arizona, Florida is 3-7 in its past 10 games decided by five points or fewer. The losses include blown 11-point leads in Elite Eight losses to Butler in 2011 and Louisville last March.

In Tucson last weekend, the Gators committed turnovers on three consecutive inbounds plays and senior guard Kenny Boynton missed the front end of a one-and-one with 21.5 seconds remaining and Florida ahead 64-63.

Despite their recurrence, Donovan does not see a common theme to Florida's late-game struggles.

"It's been a lot of different things," he said. "When you play against good teams, you've got to be able to play all the way through for 40 minutes."

Florida (7-1) should be able to get away with less on Wednesday night when Southeastern Louisiana (1-7) visits the O'Connell Center.

But to reach their potential this season, the Gators could use more tests like they faced at Arizona. Entering the game, Florida had a 25-point average margin of victory and had trailed for a total of six minutes, 17 seconds all season.

The Gators were the better team for much of Saturday's loss, but failed to respond in critical stretches. Arizona – now 8-0 and ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 – outscored Florida a combined 15-0 in the final 1:19 of the first half and last 57 seconds of the game.

"The reality in the game, as difficult as the loss was, I think it came down to a minute and half," Donovan said. "I thought our team really competed. I thought they did some things really, really well in the game."

But the game's final minute was a comedy of errors.

Lost amid the turnovers and Boynton's missed free throw were too many defensive lapses, Donovan said. He also felt the Gators, up five with a minute to play, expected Arizona to send them to the free-throw line.

"I almost felt like there was a carelessness, in terms of an expectation of, 'OK, we're up by (five) with a minute to go, they're just going to foul us,'" Donovan said.

Junior Will Yeguete said the Gators may have been "a little nervous."

"We have never been in that situation this season …late in the game," he continued. "We didn't know how to handle it. I think it's going to help us in the long run."

First, the Gators will need senior guard Kenny Boynton to get back on track. In three games since a 24-point, eight-rebound outing against UCF, Boynton has 25 points and is shooting just 8-of-33 from the field (24.2 percent).

But with three weeks to go before SEC play, Donovan said the Gators can take something positive from Saturday's loss. Florida, after all, went to Arizona's McKale Center — oncehome to 71 straight Wildcats wins — and gave a top-10 team all it could handle.

"I told our guys in some way if we really, really learn from this, it will be very, very beneficial going forward," he said. "If we don't it will be two things: we didn't learn and we had to swallow a tough loss."